Running InfluxDB as a service in Windows

Run as a Service

As part of the process to setup some metrics collections for sql-server based on perfmon counters I’ve been utilizing InfluxDB. Part of getting started on this is ensuring InfluxDB runs as a service instead of requiring me to launch the exe manually. For more information on InfluxDb, see my other post: Setting Up InfluxDb, Chronograf, and Grafana for the SqlServer Dev

This of course, did not go without it’s share of investigation since I’m working with a compiled executable that was originally built in GO. I had issues registering InfluxDB as a service. This is typically due to enviromental/path variables. In my powershell launch of InfluxD.exe I typically used a script like the following:

I investigated running as a service and found a great reminder on using NSSM for this: Running Go executables … as windows services ’ Ricard Clau I went and downloaded NSSM again and first setup and register of the service went without a hitch, unlike my attempt at running New-service -name 'InfluxDB' -BinaryPathName 'C:\Influx\influxdb\InfluxD.exe' -DisplayName 'InfluxDB' -StartupType Automatic -Credential (get-credential). I’m pretty sure the core issue was the PATH variables and other related enviromental paths were not setup with “working directory” being the InfluxDB which would be expected by it.

NSSM - Non-Sucking Service Manager

Using nssm install provided the GUI which I used in this case. Using the following command I was able to see the steps taken to install, which would allow reproducing the install from a .bat file very easily.

set-location C:\tools
.\nssm.exe dump InfluxDB

This resulted in the following output:

C:\tools\nssm.exe install InfluxDB C:\Influx\influxdb\influxd.exe
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB AppDirectory C:\Influx\influxdb
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB AppExit Default Restart
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB AppEvents Start/Pre C:\Influx\influxdb\influx.exe
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB AppEvents Start/Post C:\Influx\influxdb\influx.exe
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB AppNoConsole 1
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB AppRestartDelay 60000
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB DisplayName InfluxDB
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB ObjectName SERVICENAME "PASSWORD"
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB Start SERVICE_AUTO_START
C:\tools\nssm.exe set InfluxDB Type SERVICE_WIN32_OWN_PROCESS

Pretty awesome! It’s a nice change to have something perfectly the first time with no issues.